If we care about Stockton's history, we must care for City Hall

When I read Michael Fitzgerald's Dec. 28 column, "Deck the Hall," in regards to the possible abandonment of the City Hall, nostalgia came with a rush.

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By Bill Dozier

recordnet.com

By Bill Dozier

Posted Jan. 20, 2013 at 12:01 AM

By Bill Dozier
Posted Jan. 20, 2013 at 12:01 AM

» Social News

When I read Michael Fitzgerald's Dec. 28 column, "Deck the Hall," in regards to the possible abandonment of the City Hall, nostalgia came with a rush.

Shortly after my return to Stockton from the campaigns in New Guinea, Leyte and Luzon with the famed First Cavalry Division from 1945 to 1947, I was lucky enough to be selected by the Stockton City Council as the first full-time city attorney. My office was on the second floor in the southeast corner of the City Hall.

Walking to work in the morning, it was a pleasure to glimpse McLeod Lake and its ducks, geese and floating bottles. McLeod Lake was named after the Scottish-Irish fur trapper of the Hudson Bay Company.

Alexander McLeod visited Stockton at least three times between 1820-1824. The Hudson Bay men (fur trappers) claimed there were more beavers and otters in our Delta than anywhere in North America. (McLeod Lake was located where the park between City Hall and the public library now exists.)

City Hall was a beautiful sight remotely resembling a beige Parthenon (compare the contemporary courthouse, which resembles a Moscow office building). I worked alone with one secretary for a year, then was joined by attorney Taubner Hamma. At that time, many employees in City Hall, including us, worked from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays, and 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturdays.

City Hall was a happy place as many of the officials were friends from Stockton's Ione High School. We handled all the legal problems of the city of Stockton, including opposing requests by utility companies to raise the rates. If we had requested to hire a lawyer for any of the "complex" cases, we would have been laughed out of town.

Now the City Attorney's Office requests the City Council to hire an outside attorney in any "complex" case.

My salary was approximately $700 per month. I don't know what Taubner's salary was.

Those bucolic days lasted until about 1950 or 1951. When employment turmoil threatened to sink the boat. A Stockton lawyer defied the Napoleonic chief of police, Rex Parker, by preparing to open a new gambling joint. The chief responded by closing all houses of pleasure in Stockton, gambling or "Fandango Girls" that had existed in the community since 1851 or 1852. This split the community and the City Council.

The City Council fired "The Old Grey Eagle," City Manager Walter Hogan, because he refused to fire Chief Parker. A recall petition was filed by the "good Burgher" citizens, led by John Zuckerman against the City Council. It was heavily backed by the Stockton Record.

The opposition began printing their own small newspaper appealing to traditions of the city and urging the voters not to submit to the "juggernaut," the Stockton Record. Much to the surprise of the pundits, the recall failed (however, the wiser voters in calmer times declined to re-elect the "good ol' boys" faction of the City Council at the very next election).

The city attorneys tried to remain above the fray in these turbulent times, but our luck deserted us. The police filed a complaint against the kindly old gentleman who owned a house of pleasure and was reputed to be the boss of what passed for a small-town Mafia. The police had a solid case of "maintaining a house of prostitution."

The police officers were on the roof of the immediately adjacent building and were able to see through an unshaded window.

They saw a soldier from the Pittsburg Army base pass a marked $20 bill to a red-haired young lady who commenced to perform her part of the contract. At the trial in the misdemeanor court of the City Hall, I prosecuted the cinch case. Much to my surprise and consternation an alternative judge appeared on the bench.

During the trial he told the jury to find that the soldier was an unreliable witness because he was a "stranger from out of town." He also ruled that the police could not identify the young lady because "they didn't see her face."

Even worse, I found after the trial that the bailiff had served summons to prospective jurors only on owners and managers of the stores and enterprises on Skid Row. The jury brought back a verdict of innocent in about 15 minutes.

This was a painful lesson to me that verdicts are not always decided by the evidence. Even worse, I always observed that certain officers on the police force were not as friendly to me as they had been for years.

Some of the leading citizens began to run for the City Council. Many were elected. In the cleaned-up city, there were a number of outstanding mayors and councilmen. Minority citizens sometimes became city officials. The city prospered as the port's income increased and the importance of agriculture grew in California.

A few decades later, a "pest" entered paradise. The retail business and offices began to move north. The development of fancy malls increased the pace. The downtown residents and business owners in the south of the city became alarmed and complained to their councilmen.

Beguiled by a series of city managers, especially one from Alaska, the council in recent years plunged into an orgy of building downtown. (The hotel, the ballpark, the arena, three parking garages in the center of town, hundreds of thousands of dollars for improvement of the marina, the purchase of the Fox Theatre, and the eventual loss of up to a $1 million in the downtown restaurant subsidy in the old Hotel Stockton.)

However, the northward trend has proved to be inevitable and the city is stuck with hundreds of millions of crushing debt.

All of this exciting and sometimes tragic history was centered in and around City Hall.

Beautiful old City Hall is practically the only traditional building in town. (There is plenty of parking nearby.)

For heaven's sake, let's not abandon it while we're fighting back to solvency.